2000 jobs to go due to the budget cut.
Yet the council are still insisting in putting up stupid "school zones" next to schools with 20mph zones.
Now there is nothing wrong with this apart from the fact they are don't bother with proper signage or any traffic calming measures.
Then too many roads are not logical, Alexandra Road for example is a 20 zone but it is very wide and clear. I have been beeped at, sworn at, violently over taken, flashed at etc for doing 20 down there.
Now I thought all 20 zones had to have traffic calming measures for example speed humps?
I also thought the signage needs to be clear, one tiny sign on entry and one tiny sign on exist is not good enough when there is no other physical features to show its 30.
We all know a 30 zone because they are lit with no 40 repeaters.
I personaly would like to see all trunk roads in cities being 30/40 and side roads being 20 to end this confusion.
I am going to take a lot of pictures of these zones on my next day off as I am pretty sure they are ilegal in the current form.
Stockport and Trafford both seem to be 20 zones a lot better with repeater signs etc.
|
Look on the bright side Rattle.
Many of those jobs that are going are likely to be in IT, so they could well be looking to outsource.
You may be working for them soon. ;>)
|
I see Manchester City Council is following the long local authority tradition of blaming central government:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12177853
|
>> 2000 jobs to go due to the budget cut.
>>
>> Yet the council are still insisting in putting up stupid "school zones" next to schools
>> with 20mph zones.
--- Richmondshire Council put a 20 mph limit where its impossible to go any faster, on the approch to and in the town centre
The area with all the Schools on it (Darlington Road for all them that know it) is nice and straight very easy to speed along, it still remains at 30 mph.
>> Then too many roads are not logical, Alexandra Road for example is a 20 zone
>> but it is very wide and clear. I have been beeped at, sworn at, violently
>> over taken, flashed at etc for doing 20 down there.
>>
Don’t worry about them, they are just ignorant buffoons, who obviously are too impatient and think that road rules don’t apply to them, you’re the better driver for adhering to said rules.
Last edited by: Redviper on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 14:24
|
Manchester City Council last year decided to increase its minimum wage by £1 (so exceeding the National Minimum Wage). At the same time, it was running a deficit.
I assume the Council is run by people who can't do sums...
Last edited by: madf on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 14:44
|
|
....and on minimum wage (not)
|
|
Sorry to rant as well, but here goes ---- Anglesey Council a strife riddled council pays their Chief Executive £1.00 per year, but they pay the company that employs him £275000 a year.....275000 pounds to a man who does exactly what ?
|
The chief exec at Manchester City Council makes around £200,000.
Perhaps he's too worried about the £1bn pension liability to take any more.
www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/News/General/City-Council-accounts-exposed_11702.asp
|
|
Anglesey is the size of the Trafford centre though !
|
...Anglesey is the size of the Trafford centre though...
Don't disagree.
Leaving Anglesey aside, I thought the Manc guy, as the chief of a largish authority, would have been on more than what he is.
Last edited by: Iffy on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 15:02
|
Are you refering to Richard Lease or Sir Bernstain?
The population of Manchester is only about 400,000 that is just the authority, Manchester is a lot bigger than that as a city.
What makes Manchester unusual as an LA is that it has quite a small population but a very very large commercial centre.
|
The curate of Grantchester
Purloined the Bishop's Lanchester
And kerb-crawled all through Longsight
(The pride of Greater Manchester).
|
I assume the Council is run by people who can't do sums...'
Seems the have had to do a few now
"Some 2,000 jobs are to be lost at Manchester city council as a result of “massive spending cuts imposed by central government”, the authority said on Thursday"
|
|
According to the BBC News they have a 40k per annum "Twitter Tsar" - that's good.
|
>> Then too many roads are not logical, Alexandra Road for example is a 20 zone
>> but it is very wide and clear. I have been beeped at, sworn at, violently
>> over taken, flashed at etc for doing 20 down there.
That's the other drivers problem. Ignore it.
|
I do and I try but I still find distracting when some A4 TDI is up my tale. I also always lock the doors on such roads now!
It just annoys me as I get the impression those people don't know the speed limit, it is partly their fault but partly the councils for putting up poor signage.
|
>> It just annoys me as I get the impression those people don't know the speed
>> limit, it is partly their fault but partly the councils for putting up poor signage.
>>
>>
Rubbish, they are pompous self important pratts who think their journey is more important than anyone else's.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 13 Jan 11 at 17:08
|
>> I do and I try but I still find distracting when some A4 TDI is
>> up my tale.
If they're too close, slow down.
|
>> Ignore it.
Or better still, go with the flow and do a sensible speed like all these swearers and flashers. It will work wonders with their mood, and you won't feel like someone who knows he's not being a prat although the way he's driving makes everyone else think he is.
|
But then if I do run somebody over for doing 30 in a 20 it is probably prison and I also can't afford to get any NIPs.
I do sometimes do an indicated 25 on Alaxandra Road though. 20 just seems dangerious due to above.
|
|
If you run over someone doing 30mph, Sheikha, it can only be because you aren't looking where you are going or they have done something suicidal. It isn't the crawling 20 or 30 that's the point, it's running over someone. The speed will seem very incidental if that happens.
|
|
Check the signs Rat - they have to be within red-circles to be enforceable a lot of these "zone" are within black circles and are unenforceable...
|
>> they have to be within red-circles to be enforceable a lot of these "zone" are within black circles and are unenforceable...
They're all illegal if you ask me, anyway a damn silly nuisance doing no good to anyone.
When oh when will some kind manufacturer come up with a non-huge, non-4wd, non-brick-shaped car designed to race comfortably over these speed bumps, humps and other obstructions without bottoming or jumping in the air? Desert racing suspension suitably softened... Mmmmmmm!
There has to be a sizeable niche market.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 17:28
|
>> When oh when will some kind manufacturer come up with a non-huge, non-4wd, non-brick-shaped car
>> designed to race comfortably over these speed bumps, humps and other obstructions
Hummer?
|
At 20mph, Ratto, you stand a good chance of a tug for kerbcrawling on Alex Road.
Don't antagonise the guy behind you in the the blacked out Civic......He'll be the pimp...and probably armed !
Ted
|
That is why I always lock the doors :).
I do 25 down there, unless I see white van with a camera in the back.
I didn't know the area still had that reputation.
The new 20 zone is High Lane near the muslim school which I can understand but that stretch is quite wide it should only be a 20 at school times. Then just after that as the road gets narrorwer it becomes a 30. It would make far more sense if it was 20 all the way to Barlow Moor Road as Sandy Lane is a 20 anyway.
|
|
Sense doesn't enter into it in traffic management these days.
|
>> That is why I always lock the doors :).
>>
Bad news. Bullets can pass through glass.
|
Durham Council are obviously of the same mind as they have announced cuts, yet insist on continuing with their plan to waste thousands creating a 300 yard bus lane that would have a negligible impact.
Funny how the councils can still drum up funds when it comes to car-hating measure ;-)
|
I've worked with a lot of city and county councils over the past ten years or so, and as a private sector employee going into a public sector organisation, the amount of waste, over-staffing, and blowing of vast budgets on ill considered, poorly managed, and often completely unnecessary projects is just staggering.
One of them, to my knowledge, still has £100,000 worth of printers in its basement which they bought "to use budget" and which were still sitting on their pallets two years on.
Last edited by: DP on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 12:44
|
Hi Rattle, I had the dubious pleasure of being in Manchester, yesterday, on a bit of business. How can a city be so wet and grey!
Anyhow, I had to walk for a bit through the suburban streets of Didsbury, after dark. You see, I got the wrong bus for where I wanted to be. I was staggered at how poor the street lighting was. The roads and pavements were filthy with a mixture of last Autumn's leaves and the residue from gritting. The speed humps you mention seem enormous and many a passing car was grounding out on them. Couple the poor lighting with the obliteration of any road markings, due to poor maintenance and dirty roads, and it's a wonder that anyone sees the speed humps before they hit them. I felt vulnerable and threatened in those streets. The feeling was not helped by so many of the passing cars being "drug dealer" off-roaders or filthy white vans.
Nobody seems to walk or even cycle in Didsbury. I saw the occasional, grim-faced jogger but everyone else was in a car or a bus.
Those buses, you know, the Magic buses! Some were on 1996 plates, noisy and very polluting. I don't know how they get away with it and don't understand the logic when some of the newer buses are hybrids. Someone is confused about their "green" credentials.
|
... had to walk for a bit through the suburban streets of Didsbury...I felt vulnerable and threatened in those streets...
And I thought Didsbury was one of the better parts, or at least bohemian in a Notting Hill sort of way.
|
>> And I thought Didsbury was one of the better parts, or at least bohemian in
>> a Notting Hill sort of way.
>>
>>
>>
Nothing wrong with DIdsbury that a wrecking ball will not cure. :-)
|
|
Tell that to the people who have paid £2million+ for their houses!
|
Having watched traffic departments in Stoke on Trent trying to manage road traffic, it is evident:
1. they are managed bypeople who have no idea of cost control
2. the staff have no idea of traffic management.
3. The implementation is illegal so operated by people who have either been given the wrong parameteres- or ignore them - which is a management issue.
Generally, traffic departments spend money like water on speed humps,, but don't fix holes, this ending up with £millions in legal claims.
In summary, they make bankers look like geniuses.. Can't say fairer than that...
Remember council staff spend budgets or they are cut.So finanical sense is not in any equation...
|
It sounds like Chris may have been more in Withington although it does sound like the must have been on Wilmslow Road. There are a few P platers but on Magicbus stickers but Stagecoach are phasing them all out. The vast majority of double deckers in Manchester on 07 to 60 plates.
The average fleet is about 5 years old.
As for it being grey well any city can look grey if it is dull and the reason for a lot of the leaves is Manchester has far more trees than most cities.
Didsbury is a big place and people tend to call it Didsbury when its not. I have seen parts of Burnage being called Didsbury. There is a pub in Chorlton which is described as being in Didsbury.
This is a typical Didsbury Street away from the busy student area it sounds like Chris was in.
maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUK359&=&q=m20&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl
.*********
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Fri 14 Jan 11 at 13:58
|
|
Pretty near, Rattle. I went West along Barlow Moor Road then South onto Holme Road. Holme Road was particularly dark and spooky. I'm sure it will all look nice in the Summer, though!
|
You might have noticed, as you walked into Holme Road, that there was a gate closing it off to vehicles. Quite a few roads here are like this....being private. Seems dark, even in the day because there are an awful lot of trees and high hedges around here. The council do not bother with them, being on private roads, and a lot of the street lights are in the tree canopy.
An exclusive area, though and you probably won;t come to any harm there.
Some lovely , expensove properties.
Ted
|
Yep I am not sure the history of it. Holme Road is a private road so the residents are responsible for its up keep. They are called unadapoted roads.
Private roads can work well, Chortonville for example is all private and the roads are in much better condition than anything done by the council.
|
That will be the same council that put some traffic lights about 200 yards away from Victoria & City Road, Fenton and A50 junction which is always busy. Traffic gets parked on the roundabout because the lights are so close to it.
I'm still trying to find out who to contact about the failed lighting on the A500. The stretch that has just been replaced has a whole section which has never worked continuously since the upgrade.
|
Our Council introduced 20mph zones all over, especially near schools and in housing estates.
Last year I read that as they were 20 zones, the council had no obligation to carry out any snow clearing / gritting on them. That was proved in last year's bad snow but I have to say that this year, even in the wee estate I am in, we saw plenty of ploughs and gritters and JCBs so maybe things have changed.
|
>> Our Council introduced 20mph zones all over, especially near schools and in housing estates.
>> Last year I read that as they were 20 zones, the council had no obligation
>> to carry out any snow clearing / gritting on them. That was proved in last
>> year's bad snow but I have to say that this year, even in the wee
>> estate I am in, we saw plenty of ploughs and gritters and JCBs so maybe
>> things have changed.
>>
Council elections coming up ?
|
|
as far as i canmake out. the police won't enforce 20 zones ,so they have to have speed humps . that rule may have changed recently. if its a 20 zone they don't need to put in repeater sighns. if its a 20 road they do.
|
|
People have been done for speeding in 20 zones though.
|
|
One of the advantages of having an auto 'box is it's easier to stick to speed limits, IMO - mind you, being retired also helps!
|
Rant about Manchester City Council - bathtub tom
